Consumer data is complicated. Every person who completes a purchase online or engages with your content is a unique individual with their own needs, personality traits, and reasons for acting the way they do. The same goes for all those who clicked on your site and decided not to purchase something. You need to know where you are succeeding and failing to understand the market and make improvements. The more detailed the information, the better the chance of improving business intelligence in B2B sales. That’s where the 360-degree customer view is so important.
The 360-degree Customer View
The 360-degree customer view essentially gives businesses the chance to see buyers in a more well-rounded way. Some companies can end up focusing too much on one area and neglecting others. This could lead to some missed opportunities for growth and valuable insights into consumer behavior. When you tap into each of these 5 sectors outlined below, you can get a more realistic view of what’s going on. It takes a lot of extra work, but it’s worth it. Let a b2b sales consultant help you understand the importance of this data and how to use it to your advantage.
Breaking Down A 360 Degree Consumer View
1) Demographic data
This is a crucial starting point for any company when understanding consumers better. The amount of data collection and the methods for doing so will depend on your service and product. You also have to be sure your data privacy management and compliance levels are in order. Age, gender, and race/ethnicity tend to be the big three for determining your biggest markets. Are your products a hit with boomers, Gen X, Millenials, Gen Z, or all four? Gender is important for those targeting a specific market or aiming to be gender-neutral. Race/ethnicity helps you see how well you play with African-American and Latin-American markets. From there, you could also ask about marital status, education level, and other factors if you feel they are worth knowing.
2) Environmental data
Beyond these initial questions about user demographics, you can also learn more about environmental or geographical data. This gives you an insight into where these customers are and how that location affects some of the other areas below. Geographical data places consumers in specific regions and cities, highlighting where you’re making the most sales. It’s more than seeing if you’re getting more urban consumers than rural ones. A spike in sales in one city could be indicative of a cultural or climate-related influence on buyer behavior. Climate-related data can show how well specific products perform in hotter regions or cities with high rainfall.
3) Behavioral data
That environmental data pairs nicely with behavioral data and those demographics to give a more well-rounded view. You can gain a better perspective on why consumers act the way they do and how that comes across in their online behavior. You’re looking for key markers regarding decision-making and preferences online. You can learn a lot about this through feedback forms and general market research. Remember that information about why they chose not to purchase something can be more important than why they did. What was it about a product, price, online service, or other customer experience that put them off? You can also run analytics on customer journeys and site visits to measure your performance.
4) Transactional data
The end goal with any customer interactions and marketing schemes is to convert visitors into buyers and make those sales. So, on top of that behavioral data, you also need transactional data. This information goes deeper into the habits and actions of consumers. You can look at the details of specific transactions, with data on the buyer’s purchase, the cost, and the method of payment. Are you getting people putting massive orders on credit cards or smaller purchases through other payment schemes? You can also look at that customer’s brand loyalty and if there were other influencing factors, such as purchase occasions. For example, did you get a lot of traffic and conversions for a specific line because of a major holiday? Was there a rush on seasonal goods because of weather events – going back to that environmental influence?
5) Social data
Finally, there is the importance of social data. No brand can afford to ignore information gained from social media platforms when so much engagement and traffic comes from these sites. You can learn a surprising amount from these resources. For a start, those social media profiles are full of demographic data as users open up their personal lives to the world. You can also get significant insights from their actions and engagements. Which posts do they like and share with other people? Which hashtags are they using? Are they using links in promotional posts to access online content and stores? Also, don’t forget to analyze social data on as many platforms as possible. Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook are the big 3. However, don’t forget that Pinterest and LinkedIn still exist.
Making The Most Of This Data
There’s a lot of data to utilize here and it’s vital to spend time collecting all five areas as efficiently as possible. This also means having the analytical tools and user-friendly dashboards in place to do so. You want to have all that information stored in a way that’s easy to find and understand to do anything with it. This allows for more comprehensive and accurate reports that inform future plans. It can also help with predictive analytics, which are also essential for keeping your sales plan on track.
The next step here is to hire a professional B2B sales consultant to teach you more about business intelligence. The right expert will work with you and your team over time to gain insights, improve data collection, and strengthen sales plans. You will know your customers better than ever and be able to provide the goods and services they need. Continued efforts in business intelligence and data collection can then lead to further growth and customer loyalty – and it all starts with that 360-degree view.
